Arthouse superstar Lars von Trier may have built a career on being unpredictable, but deep down you suspect the self-proclaimed "best film director in the world" knows precisely what he's doing. Which is perhaps why, in the wake of his comments about Hitler at this year's Cannes film festival, he's forgone the usual Hollywood catastrophe route of "taking some time out" and has instead jumped straight on the PR trail for new movie Melancholia.

I use the phrase "PR trail" loosely, since Von Trier's crippling fear of air travel has long forced his press engagements to come to him. And come to him they do. Across the summer, scores of international journalists flew to the ex-military barracks outside Copenhagen that houses Von Trier's production company, in search of even halfway incendiary material. And judging by his willingness to discuss any subject – including Nazism – it seems he's more than happy to give them what they want.

A child star in his native Denmark, Von Trier has long understood the power of being in the public eye. And since his breakthrough into the festival big leagues in the early-90s, he's been doing everything within his power to stay there, honing both his talent and his gift for provocation. When American reviewers criticised his portrayal of the US in Dancer In The Dark, he pledged to make three more films explicitly attacking the country. After a collaborator recently warned him against making his actresses "younger and more naked" in each successive film, he committed to doing exactly that. If controversy is a game for Von Trier, he's undoubtedly its MVP.

Somewhere lost in the PR fog of Von Trier's public persona is Melancholia itself: a stunningly realised tale of two sisters coming to terms with an impending apocalypse. It's his most emotionally honest work in years, far from the clever-clever technical games of films such as Dogville and The Boss Of It All. And like his nightmare-fuelling 2009 horror movie Antichrist, Melancholia is built on a pair of remarkable central performances. As Claire, Charlotte Gainsbourg brings life to a character that might easily feel hollow in less capable hands, while it's a mark of the brilliance of Kirsten Dunst's Justine that she secured the Best Actress award at Cannes despite the festival's banning of Von Trier just days earlier … although the award might equally be for her portrayal of The Most Embarrassed Woman On Earth during that fateful press conference.

Nothing about Melancholia itself (rated 15 for "moderate nudity") is likely to cause upset when it's released on Friday, which means that Von Trier's outspoken antics will dominate the headlines. He was at it again this week, suggesting he's not really sorry for those Hitler claims. But to suggest that his behaviour is a distraction from his movies is to ignore that it's also his most valuable marketing tool.

Anne Billson: By warning us in advance that Bruce Willis or Tom Cruise isn't going to save the day, Lars Von Trier's Melancholia joins the fine tradition of films that preview their own coming attractions